The largest percentage of US respondents in a global study by the Hay Group division of Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY) said their most important leadership development priority was developing leaders to drive strategic change. However, only 17% said they were confident they had the right leadership capabilities in place to execute their strategy, and only 18% were confident that their leadership team demonstrated the behaviors needed to successfully deliver on strategic business priorities.

US respondents made up nearly one third of the 7,500 global respondents, and their answers generally mirrored responses from other parts of the world.

“The best thought-out business strategy will fail miserably if the leaders within an organization don’t have the skills to make it come to fruition,” said Dennis Baltzley, senior client partner and global head of leadership development solutions at Korn Ferry Hay Group. “Effective leadership development is the key to helping leaders have the right knowledge and experiences necessary to drive change.”

The survey asked, “Do you have the right leadership capabilities in place to execute on your organization’s strategic business priorities?” US responses include:

• Definitely yes: 17%
• Somewhat yes: 54%
• Unsure: 11%
• Somewhat no: 13%
• Definitely no: 5%

Survey respondents in the US noted dissatisfaction with the outcomes of their leadership development programs, with 53% ranking their leadership development return on investment as only fair to very poor. Also, when asked if they were able to completely start over with leadership development programming, 55% of respondents said that they would throw out at least half of their current approach in pursuit of improved outcomes.

Korn Ferry commissioned the global executive survey of views on leadership development in July and August of 2015. The survey generated more than 7,500 responses from 107 countries, with 2,480 coming from the United States.